CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted ten books for the 2023 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The winner will be announced 6 June 2023.

The 2023 finalists are:

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley
I Must Betray You by Ruta Sepetys
In the Wild Light by Jeff Zentner
Instructions for Dancing by Nicola Yoon
Nothing More to Tell by Karen McManus
The Girl from the Sea by Molly Ostertag
The Ogress and the Orphans by Kelly Barnhill
Two Degrees by Alan Gratz
Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice by Tommie Smith and Derrick Barnes; illustrated by Dawud Anyabwile

The selected titles include a visit to a quirky town where almost everyone blames an outsider for its woes; a trip to Nova Scotia where new love with a mysterious girl upends a Canadian teen’s plans; a riveting survival story where four teens face three different threats; a graphic novel addressing racial issues; a novel where the main character has the power to see other people’s romantic fates; and much, much more!

Sabaa Tahir author of All My Rage

Sabaa Tahir grew up in California’s Mojave Desert at her family’s eighteen-room motel. There, she spent her time devouring fantasy novels, raiding her brother’s comic book stash, and playing guitar badly. She likes thunderous indie rock, garish socks, and all things nerd.

A professional author since 2015 and a journalist before that, Sabaa’s books have sold more than a million copies, and are New York Times and international bestsellers. Her book All My Rage won the 2022 National Book Award, the Printz Medal and the Boston Globe Horn Book Award.

Angeline Boulley author of Firekeeper’s Daughter

Angeline Boulley, an enrolled member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. She is a former Director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Angeline lives in southwest Michigan, but her home will always be on Sugar Island.

She made her debut as an author in March of 2021, with her Young Adult Thriller, Firekeeper’s Daughter, which is a novel about an eighteen-year-old biracial Indigenous woman who must uncover deadly secrets within her community, take on responsibilities larger than herself, and find her truth in the process. With four starred reviews, Angeline Boulley’s Firekeeper’s Daughter won both the Printz medal and the Morris award. The novel was also a Reese Witherspoon YA Book Club pick and has been optioned by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production company, Higher Ground, to appear as a Netflix original series.

Ruta Sepetys author of I Must Betray You

Ruta Sepetys is an internationally acclaimed, #1 New York Times bestselling author of historical fiction published in over sixty countries and forty languages. Her novels Between Shades of Gray, Out of the Easy, Salt to the Sea and The Fountains of Silence have won or been shortlisted for more than forty book prizes, and are included on more than sixty state award lists. Between Shades of Gray was adapted into the film Ashes in the Snow, and her other novels are currently in development for TV and film. Her current novel, I Must Betray You, masterfully portrays the tyrannical dictatorship of Nicolae Ceaușescu in a country governed by isolation and fear.

Winner of the Carnegie Medal, Ruta is passionate about the power of history and literature to foster global awareness and connectivity. She has presented to NATO, to the European Parliament, in the United States Capitol, and at embassies worldwide. Ruta was born and raised in Michigan and now lives with her family in Nashville, Tennessee.

Jeff Zentner author of In the Wild Light

Jeff Zentner is the author of The Serpent King, Goodbye Days, and Rayne and Delilah’s Midnite Matinee. In the Wild Light, his latest novel, was Winner of the Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award and has been longlisted for the Carnegie Medal and the United Kingdom Literacy Association Award.

Zentner became interested in writing for young adults after volunteering at the Tennessee Teen Rock Camp and Southern Girls Rock Camp. As a kid, his parents would take him to the library and drop him off, where he would read until closing time. He worked at various bookstores through high school and college.

He speaks fluent Portuguese, having lived in the Amazon region of Brazil for two years.

Before becoming a writer, he was a musician who recorded with Iggy Pop, Nick Cave and Debbie Harry. He lives in Nashville with his wife and son.

Nicola Yoon author of Instructions for Dancing

Nicola Yoon is a Jamaican-American author. She is best known for writing the 2015 young adult novel Everything, Everything, a New York Times best seller and the basis of a 2017 film of the same name. In 2016, she released The Sun Is Also a Star, a novel that was also adapted to a film of the same name. She was the first Black woman to hit #1 on the New York Times Young Adult bestseller list.

Nicola grew up in Jamaica and Brooklyn, and lives in Los Angeles with her husband, the novelist David Yoon, and their daughter. According to the author, she’s a hopeless romantic who firmly believes that you can fall in love in an instant and that it can last forever.

Karen McManus author of Nothing More to Tell

Karen M. McManus is a #1 New York Times and international bestselling author of young adult thrillers. Her work includes the One of Us Is Lying series, which was turned into a television show on Peacock and Netflix, as well as the standalone novels Two Can Keep a Secret, The Cousins, You’ll Be the Death of Me, and Nothing More to Tell. Karen’s critically acclaimed, award-winning books have been translated into 42 languages and have sold more than six million copies worldwide.

McManus earned her BA in English from the College of the Holy Cross and her MA in journalism from Northeastern University. When she isn’t working or writing in Cambridge, Massachusetts, she loves to travel with her son.

Molly Ostertag author of The Girl from the Sea

Molly Knox Ostertag is an American cartoonist and writer currently living in Los Angeles. Her work includes the webcomic Strong Female Protagonist, and the middle grade graphic novel The Witch Boy trilogy. Her latest book, The Girl from the Sea, debuted as a #1 YA Bestseller on June 1, 2021.

Ostertag grew up in upstate New York. She attended Bard College and studied illustration and cartooning at the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in New York City, where she graduated in 2014. She was named one of Forbes magazine’s 30 Under 30 in 2021.

Kelly Barnhill author of The Ogress and the Orphans

Kelly is a former teacher, former bartender, former waitress, former activist, former park ranger, former secretary, former janitor and former church-guitar-player. The sum of these experiences has prepared her for exactly nothing – save for the telling of stories, which she has been doing quite happily for some time now.

She has three children, and she and her family live in a sustainable house designed by her husband. She also teaches, freelances, volunteers, runs, canoes, camps, gardens, and hikes. She also bakes pie, just like the Ogress in her latest book.

Alan Gratz author of Two Degrees

Alan Gratz is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of nineteen novels and graphic novels for young readers, including Two Degrees, Ground Zero, Refugee, and Prisoner B-3087. Alan’s latest novel, Two Degrees, was a Junior Library Guild Selection, and an Amazon Best Book of the Month.

Alan was born and raised in Knoxville, Tennessee. After a carefree but humid childhood, Alan attended the University of Tennessee, where he earned a College Scholars degree with a specialization in creative writing, and, later, a Master’s degree in English education. A member of the East Tennessee Writers Hall of Fame, Alan now lives with his wife Wendi and his daughter Jo in Asheville, North Carolina, where he enjoys playing games, eating pizza, and, perhaps not too surprisingly, reading books.

Tommie Smith author of Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice

Tommie C. Smith is an American former track and field athlete and former wide receiver in the American Football League. At the 1968 Summer Olympics, Smith, aged 24, won the 200-meter sprint finals and gold medal in 19.83 seconds – the first time the 20-second barrier was broken officially.

His Black Power salute with John Carlos atop the medal podium to protest racism and injustice against African-Americans in the United States caused controversy, as it was seen as politicizing the Olympic Games. It remains a symbolic moment in the history of the Black Power movement.

Derrick Barnes co-author of Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice

Derrick Barnes is the author of the New York Times bestseller The King of Kindergarten, as well as the critically acclaimed picture book Crown: An Ode to the Fresh Cut, which received a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Author Honor, the 2018 Ezra Jack Keats New Writer Award, and the 2018 Kirkus Prize for Young Readers. Derrick is a graduate of Jackson State University and was the first African American male creative copywriter hired by greeting card giant Hallmark Cards.

Dawud Anyabwile illustrator of Tommie Smith’s Victory. Stand! Raising My Fist for Justice

Dawud Anyabwile is an award-winning comics artist and the founder and CEO of Big City Entertainment. He has received the Key to Kansas City for Outstanding Service to Children and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention. He has illustrated books including Becoming Muhammad Ali by James Patterson and Kwame Alexander, and Monster by Walter Dean Myers.

CCRCE’s TRCA Committee has shortlisted five books for the 2022 Teen Reader’s Choice Award. The winner will be announced 17 May 2022. The 2022 finalists are:

Barry Squires, Full Tilt by Heather Smith
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas
Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood by Gary Paulsen
Superman Smashes the Klan by Gene Luen Yang; illustrations by Gurihiru
These Violent Delights by Chloe Gong

The 2022 TRCA Committee selected the finalists from a list of seventy titles. After months spent reading and discussing these suggestions, a selection was made. The selected titles include a quirky romp through the streets of St. John’s; a trip to Garden Heights seventeen years before the events of The Hate U Give; a riveting survival memoir from literary legend Gary Paulsen; a clever graphic novel addressing issues of race and identity; and a deliciously dark twist on Romeo and Juliet promising glitter, suspense, gore, and more.

Heather Smith author of Barry Squires, Full Tilt

Heather Smith is a Canadian author. Originally from Newfoundland, Heather now lives in Waterloo, Ontario, with her husband and three children. Heather is the author of several books for children and young adults including her YA novel, The Agony of Bun O’Keefe, which won the 2019 White Pine Award, and this year’s TRCA nominee, Barry Squires, Full Tilt.

According to Smith, once a reluctant reader, she draws on her own experiences while writing. This is evident as Barry Squires, Full Tilt is speckled with details that convey the uniqueness of Newfoundland.

Angie Thomas author of Concrete Rose

Angie Thomas, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, was encouraged to take up writing after a trip with her mother to the local library. Initially intending to write fantasy and middle grade novels, Angie came to realize that she wanted her work to show truth and tear down stereotypes. The Hate U Give, her New York Times bestselling novel, was written to draw attention to the controversial issue of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement. Concrete Rose, her third novel, revisits the character of Maverick, first introduced in The Hate U Give.

Gary Paulsen author of Gone to the Woods: Surviving a Lost Childhood

Born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Gary James Paulsen (May 17, 1939 – October 13, 2021) was an American writer of children’s and young adult fiction. According to Paulsen, best known for wilderness stories, he developed his love for reading at a young age.

During his lifetime Paulsen wrote more than 175 books and 200 articles. In 1997 he won the Margaret A. Edwards Award given by the American Library Association for his lifetime achievement in young adult literature. Prior to his passing, Paulsen spent time between his home in Alaska, his ranch in New Mexico, and his sailboat on the Pacific Ocean.

Gene Luen Yang author of Superman Smashes the Klan

Gene Luen Yang is an American graphic novelist. As the Library of Congress’ fifth National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, he advocates for the importance of reading, especially reading diversely.

A native of California, Yang attended the University of California, Berkeley for his undergraduate degree. He wanted to major in art but his father encouraged him to pursue a more “practical” field so Yang majored in computer science with a minor in creative writing. Since graduating, Yang has worked as a computer engineer, high school teacher, and cartoonist.

Gurihiru illustrator of Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel Superman Smashes the Klan

Gurihiru is a Japanese illustration team, consisting of Chifuyu Sasaki, who does penciling and inking, and Naoko Kawano, who does coloring. Both originating from Sapporo, Japan, they are currently based in Saitama, mainly working as artists for American comics.

The two women are art school graduates who worked as web designers and art museum receptionists prior to their work in comics. After entering a manga competition, they were advised to contact U.S. comics publishers, and they have since illustrated many American comics and graphic novels.

Chloe Gong author of These Violent Delights

Chloe Gong is the New York Times bestselling author of These Violent Delights and its sequel Our Violent Ends. She is a recent graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, where she double-majored in English and International Relations. Born in Shanghai and raised in Auckland, New Zealand, Chloe is now located in New York.

Members of the 2022 TRCA Committee are: Eve Trainer, Jan Matthews, Matt Cole, Myrna Allen, and Susan Cochrane.